


Whiskey on the rocks

by sohnsonsun



Category: Monsta X (Band)
Genre: HOPEFULLY I MAKE IT LONG ENOUGH TO BE SLOW BURN, M/M, Slow Burn, appearances(?) by wonjookyun, bartender hyungwon, history teachers kihyuk, lit teacher shownu, showkihyuk are all teachers, side/implied kihyuk
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-01-01
Updated: 2019-03-18
Packaged: 2019-10-02 03:26:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,606
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17256728
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sohnsonsun/pseuds/sohnsonsun
Summary: Hyunwoo’s drink of choice spills out of his mouth before he even registers that the question is directed at him. “Whiskey on the rocks, please.” Hyungwon saunters away to make drinks and take more orders from patrons, some orders projected loudly from booths nearby. The whole time, the door chime hasn’t sounded at all. Hyunwoo feels like he’s experiencing a loosely knit community he’s not yet a part of.





	1. Hyunwoo

**Author's Note:**

> basically, I saw [ this photo of shownu ](https://twitter.com/summer_shownu/status/1078544528447926272) and thought of him as a patient lit teacher who's well loved by his students and idk this happened 
> 
> btw... if you find the document this was written in in my fics drive..... you'll find........ little tidbits of info about this fic...... ;)
> 
> oh and also the end note this time is really quite long but it contains important info ESPECIALLY if you've followed me as a writer (p sure that's not many people but still, thank u for ur support i love reading comments)

The best test of patience in the history of humankind, would absolutely be teaching Literature to high school students. Teenagers who sometimes either didn’t give a shit about the subject, pretentiously pretended to care deeply whilst being completely inaccurate, and god bless, the few students who read bad tumblr aesthetic poems and expected all poetry to be as surface value as Spongebob quotes placed in stanzas. 

 

Contrary to popular belief, Hyunwoo does  _ not  _ have infinite patience. However, he cares about making sure these little bastards understood how to properly read prose. So he grits his teeth and moves on. 

 

“I think a good place to start attempting to understand texts would be to put yourselves into the shoes of characters in the text. How do they feel? What events do the text allude to that you think affect how they’re acting? For example, let’s look at the child in the story we’re reading…”

  
  


“How’re your young idiots these days?” Kihyun asks from the neighbouring cubicle, as they pack their bags at the end of the day. Like Hyunwoo, his bag is full of essays that need to be marked, red pens, markers, and his laptop. A teacher’s work is never done, and weekends are prime time for clearing any large stacks of homework. 

 

“So awful it’s almost not funny anymore.” Hyunwoo isn’t willing to give away any more information, and hands a student’s essay over the partition. It’s an essay inferring the meaning of a poem of a single mother yearning for freedom. Instead, the student’s taken the theme of space travel and being an astronaut at face value and said that the woman’s dream job was to be an astronaut which was interrupted by her having children. Minhyuk reads it over his shoulder and pretends to cry, laughing the whole time. 

 

“It’s alright, I once had a student who handed in a research paper that referred to Hitler in present tense. She was “paraphrasing” from a random blog article. You should have seen Kihyun’s face, really. It was amazing.”

 

Kihyun’s anger ignited instantly. “Hitler  _ is _ a charismatic speaker, Hitler  _ uses  _ many hand gestures, Hitler  _ creates _ many jobs in the military, is he alive currently? No!”

 

“Anyway,” Minhyuk drawls, “do you wanna come with us to the bar tonight? It’ll be fun and relaxing, we promise.”

 

“Min, you know I don’t like partying…” 

 

“C’mon man, don’t worry about it! We know you hate getting wasted, so we thought it’d be a better fit if we brought you to the homeliest bar, in fact, the only bar we go to now.”

 

Hyunwoo’s still not convinced. It takes several minutes of back and forth before he finally gives in to his younger colleagues, and figures he could let loose more often. Kihyun happily keys in the address of “The Traveler’s Home” and tells him that they’ll drive together. 

 

A soft glow radiates from the windows of the bar, and lilting jazz music reaches Hyunwoo’s ears. Honestly, it almost feels-

 

“Comfortable, right?” Minhyuk interjects, eyeing the plush red seats from outside. “Wait till you get  _ inside. _ ” 

 

He then pushes the wooden door open, letting the small wind chime tinkle. It’s as if they’ve walked into a friend’s house, the way Kihyun and Minhyuk wave at people and walk towards the bar stools, just like clockwork. Hyunwoo sits down next to Kihyun and looks around, observing the warm yellow lights and animated, indiscernible chatter from the other patrons. It’s no longer surprising how his colleagues have referred to this place as “homely” anymore. 

 

A husky, relaxing voice then addresses Kihyun and Minhyuk. “Ah, you’re later than usual today,” the bartender teases, “and I see you’ve brought a friend?”

 

Kihyun laughs, and his arm wraps loosely around Hyunwoo’s shoulders. “You wouldn’t believe how long it took us to convince him to come with us, Hyungwon. This is Hyunwoo. Hyunwoo, meet Hyungwon. We come here so often that we’re old friends now.”

 

It’s then that Hyunwoo turns to face the bartender, and he wishes he’d done that earlier, because Hyungwon doesn’t even look like a mortal human. The way his suit fits on his body is sheer perfection, thin white stripes accentuating his tall, slim frame. The man looks like a model, with a Cupid’s bow gifted to him from Cupid himself. He smiles knowingly, and his lips part again. Hyunwoo takes a second to realise he’s speaking to him. 

 

“m’ the bartender here on Monday, Thursday and Friday nights, but I actually work as a model.” 

 

“Ah, that’s interesting. I’m Kihyun and Minhyuk’s colleague and friend from teaching school, but I teach Literature.” They smile at each other out of courtesy, but it’s still awkward, as are most first meetings. Hyungwon turns slightly to face Kihyun. 

 

“The usual?” Kihyun and Minhyuk nod in unison. “And you?”

 

Hyunwoo’s drink of choice spills out of his mouth before he even registers that the question is directed at him. “Whiskey on the rocks, please.” Hyungwon saunters away to make drinks and take more orders from patrons, some orders projected loudly from booths nearby. The whole time, the door chime hasn’t sounded at all. Hyunwoo feels like he’s experiencing a loosely knit community he’s not yet a part of. The various groups of people at different booths, the people playing pool, and Hyungwon, he supposes. Hyungwon’s in the midst of mixing drinks, and Hyunwoo watches as his slim wrist flicks the shaker back and forth repeatedly, pouring various mixtures into glasses with ease. He’s clearly in his element, finessed movements giving away his years of experience. 

 

When Hyungwon finishes mixing the drinks, he passes some to a cute, puppy-looking short guy, but takes most of them to the tables himself. As Hyunwoo watches him converse readily with the few different tables of people, he realises how affable and well-liked this man is. He hardly speaks to the patrons, preferring to listen to them talk about their lives, and yet every word he says seems to be met with smiles and laughter. 

 

Eventually, there are only four drinks left on the platter he’s carrying- Hyunwoo’s whiskey, Kihyun’s wine, orange juice for Minhyuk, and a bottle of soju. Hyungwon gently sets the drinks down, pulls out a bar stool, and sits with them. 

 

“So, any exciting plans for the school holidays?” There’s a glint of mischief and envy in Hyungwon’s eyes, flicking back and forth between Kihyun and Minhyuk, both of which indignantly sputter. 

 

Hyunwoo decides to save them. “Actually, in early June we’re going to England for two and a half weeks. You know, see Stratford-upon-Avon, visit historical places in London… let Kihyun and Minhyuk blow their money on war artifacts…”

 

Hyungwon laughs and laughs and laughs, clinging on to the table for support. Hyunwoo isn’t aware how what he’s said would make someone lose it so hard. Meanwhile, Kihyun lets out a cry of “you cheeky bastard!” and reaches over to hit Hyungwon, when Minhyuk catches him by the wrist. 

 

“Babe, you  _ know _ he’s right.”

 

Hyungwon is practically crying now, and croaks out in his tear-stained, wailing voice, “that’s why it’s so funny!”

 

Kihyun raises his hand to hit him again, when the short, puppy-like guy from earlier approaches the bar. An unexpectedly deep, soothing voice calls for Hyungwon.

 

“Hyungwon, Jooheon and Hoseok’s table have requested another round of drinks. Do you need me to get their orders again?”

 

“Nah, it’s alright. I think I remember their orders. Thanks, Changkyun.” Hyungwon then turns to them, and smiles sheepishly. “Work calls. Do you guys want another round?” Kihyun happily agrees. Changkyun returns to the booths to wipe the tables, eventually sitting in an empty booth and using his phone. 

 

Minhyuk waits until Hyungwon’s too far to hear them over the background noise, smile slowly stretching into a wide grin. “I knew you’d get along well. I’ve never seen him laugh so hard in my life.” Hyunwoo’s still confused as to what he did, but accepts it nonetheless. Hyungwon’s… interesting, to say the least. Hyunwoo feels a slight pull to learn more about this charming, handsome man, and he’s ever so grateful that his more outgoing coworkers have dragged him out to drink today.

 

Apparently. Hyungwon’s still able to carry a conversation whilst mixing drinks. Minhyuk tells him that he showed his students “that springtime for Hitler and Germany video” and now his students won’t shut up about it. Hyunwoo remembers that video. Minhyuk had rushed into the office one morning, and excitedly shoved his phone in Hyunwoo’’s face to show him a video that was “of utmost importance”. It consisted of a satirical musical number portraying Hitler as the honorable leader of Germany who would lead them into war, ending with a cancan line, rotating perfectly, in the shape of a swastika. If anything, Hyunwoo was impressed. 

 

“That video’s really impressive. Minhyuk showed it to me one morning, and it was stuck in my head for the whole day. How did you find it?” Hyunwoo’s genuinely curious. It looked like a video only found in the deepest, weirdest corner of the internet.

 

“I don’t know. I found that fresh piece of hell in some Youtube binge, and  _ had  _ to show it to Minhyuk. I actually texted him and told him to come here, it was so funny.”

 

The conversation then fades into comfortable silence, but the faint humming of “Springtime for Hitler and Germany” could be heard from behind the bar, as Hyungwon finished mixing drinks and washing the glasses. After a while, Hyungwon got to sit down with them again, and Hyunwoo got to hear about interesting tidbits from this unseen aspect of his best friend’s lives. Kihyun, Minhyuk and Hyungwon were close, and yet Hyunwoo felt like he fit right in, and it didn’t feel like a stretch in his imagination to hope that the four of them would be such close friends. 

At midnight, Kihyun yawns. Unsurprisingly, Hyunwoo and Hyungwon don’t feel sleepy. The bar closes at 3 in the morning, the exact time Hyunwoo usually stops working at night. Hyungwon’s called to make another round of drinks for a group of bar-hopping party goers on their last pit stop, and Kihyun and Minhyuk make a move to leave. Hyunwoo, however, decides to stay, moving to an empty booth nearby. Work is never done, and Hyunwoo takes out a stack of essays to mark, taking his time to read the answers to last week’s test on the Merchant of Venice. By the time Hyungwon slides into the booth, he’s only done marking two scripts.

 

“Can I read them?” When Hyunwoo nods, he picks up one of the marked essays and slowly reads through, squinting to read the messy scrawl on the lined paper. It grows into a steady routine, Hyungwon reading the essays Hyunwoo’s done marking while Hyunwoo marks, basking in the companionship of Hyungwon’s presence. Occasionally the essay would have a funny mistake, and Hyunwoo would interrupt Hyungwon by chuckling quietly and handing him the script in his hands, often with a phrase underlined in red, annotated with several question marks. While he marks, Hyunwoo can’t help but nerd out on the Merchant of Venice and all the things he’s studied and read up on, telling Hyungwon what the story was about and how the play was not only based on comedy, but managed to weave lessons on humanity within its speeches and slightly homoerotic subtext between the two main characters.

 

Before long, closing time has arrived. Hyungwon and Hyunwoo both stand to leave, when Hyunwoo decides to ask Hyungwon how he gets home after work.

 

“My car’s still being repaired, so right now I take an uber home.”

 

Before he can stop himself, Hyunwoo finds himself offering him a lift home.

 

The ride home is mostly silent, both of them thoroughly worn out after work, and talking seems like too much effort any more. However, when they reach Hyungwon’s modest apartment building, the light shines in from the streetlamps as he smiles thankfully at him, and Hyunwoo feels his energy return slightly.

 

“Will you be coming to the bar again?” He looks at him with hopeful eyes, and Hyunwoo can’t say no.

 

“Of course.” 

 

“I like the sound of that. Text me whenever you’re coming, then.” He grabs Hyunwoo’s phone and keys in his number before opening the car door. “Thanks for the ride, Hyunwoo.”

 

Hyungwon leaves him with the number of a newfound friend, and the beginning of a slightly fuller heart. 


	2. Hyungwon

When Hyungwon shuts the front door behind him, usually he rushes to clean his makeup off, prep his skin, and get ready for bed, focused, on task, just to get to sleep faster. ( _ I’m pretty, that’s why I get a  _ pretty  _ good amount of sleep, _ he’s once said.) This time however, he finds those tasks running in the back of his head, reflecting on his day, his week as his body does the work for him. 

 

Hyunwoo was the first time he’d seen Kihyun and Minhyuk so excited for him to meet one of their friends. And he’s met a lot of their friends, the two sociable bastards. Usually they’d pop in on the day itself, saying “by the way, Hyungwon, here’s our friends from university! guys, this is Hyungwon, long time friend and bartender for  _ tonight~ _ ”

 

But with Hyunwoo, Minhyuk had popped his head in the bar, and before Hyungwon could open his mouth to say hello, welcome him and offer a drink on the house (it never works), Minhyuk speaks first, talking fast. 

 

“Sorry babe, I have reservations for date night with Ki today so I can’t stop by or anything but we just had to tell you this: tomorrow we’re going to bring over our colleague and wanted to tell you because we think you’d really really like him and like we want you to be mentally prepared for how awesome he is and-“

 

The door swings open fully, revealing a completely exasperated Kihyun, hissing out “dude shut  _ up”  _  and smiling sweetly at him. “I don’t know why he said that but we’re bringing over a close friend tomorrow, play nice for us? He doesn’t go out drinking much. Alright, bye!”

 

Hyungwon can only manage a “have fun!” as the door of the bar slams shut on him. Changkyun looks up at him and laughs at his confused expression. 

 

“What was that about?”

 

“I don’t know, you tell me.”

 

Changkyun looks at the wall, thinking quietly. Before long, his confused face gives way to a subtle form of revelation, and he turns back to Hyungwon, smirks a little, and returns to his work. It doesn’t bother Hyungwon. The younger has been known to be weird sometimes. 

 

After a while, Changkyun speaks up again. “You still don’t know?”

 

“No?”

 

“Alright, I’ll tell you, only on the day itself.”

And as night falls the next day, Changkyun suddenly whispers in his ear. 

 

“He’s gonna be  _ hot.” _

 

Hyungwon finds himself jumping high up in the air, not unlike a cat. “Jesus, don’t sneak up on me like that! And what do you know, you’ve never seen him either?”

 

Changkyun pulls the knowing smirk again. He knows he’s right, and Hyungwon has half a mind to be terrified. 

 

The bell chimes as the door is pushed open again, and with a sinking feeling in his stomach, and a soaring heart, Hyungwon just  _ knows.  _ Changkyun’s right. 

 

That’s because in walks Kihyun, Minhyuk, and their coworker. The soft blue sweater he’s wearing falls over his chest and arms loosely, merely hinting, suggesting, teasing at the muscles yet to be revealed underneath. His eyes widen as he looks around the place, and Hyungwon instinctively finds himself taking advantage of it to take on more of him, resting on round, plump lips glistening in the dim yellow lighting. His shoulders are  _ so wide _ , and he looks unassumingly strong, but somehow, Hyungwon’s not scared. 

 

Changkyun’s there as he turns around, smugly observing the spectacle. Hyungwon just shoots him an exasperated look and heads to the sink to wash some glasses, practically  _ feeling  _ Changkyun’s laughter in his ears pre-emptively. It’s then that Hyungwon decides to remain functional for the rest of their visit, spitefully making sure Changkyun wouldn’t get the spectacle he wanted. 

 

However, Hyungwon is horrible at hiding his affections. Hyunwoo’s unintentionally so funny and unknowingly so handsome, that he finds himself laughing and smiling at everything he says. 

 

When Changkyun has to call him over to make more drinks, the bartender knows he’s failed. Once they’re out of sight of his friends, Changkyun gives him a shit-eating grin. 

 

“You’re so whipped.”

 

Hyungwon returns to his drinks, sulking. 

Hyunwoo’s there the next Monday. Hyungwon spots Changkyun raise an eyebrow at the spectacle as he walks in, but he’s not surprised. Instead, he pretends to be absorbed in wiping the various glasses at the sink. The bulkier man pauses on the way to an empty booth, and places a hand on the bar to get Hyungwon’s attention, gently tapping twice. The vibrations drum through his hands and forearms, muted but doing their job nonetheless.

 

“Don’t tell Kihyun or Minhyuk I’m here. I wouldn’t hear the end of it.” 

 

Hyungwon finds himself smiling easily, throwing out a wink for good measure. “Sure thing, Mr. Sohn. It’ll be our secret. Whiskey again?” 

 

Hyunwoo blows a puff of air out his nose. “Yeah, sure.”

 

Hyungwon’s glad he has some downtime after Hyunwoo’s walked in. When he sits down with a drink for both of them, Hyunwoo’s already looking at him expectantly. Or rather, the whiskey glass clutched in his left hand. Hyungwon arches a brow.

 

“Before you ask, it’ll be a long night.” A fat, tall stack of essays and identical literature books drop onto the table, rattling the ice and shaking the table and Hyungwon to their respective cores. He doesn’t need to look at the large pile to know he wouldn’t be able to lift it. However, Hyunwoo shakes the tension off his hands, stretches, pushes his hair back and rolls up his sleeves nonchalantly, calmly getting ready to work. In contrast, Hyungwon’s eyes widen as he blatantly stares at Hyunwoo’s now-tight white shirt, darting from his forearms to his wide chest to the slight glisten of sweat on Hyunwoo’s forehead. It’s a good thing the clueless teacher doesn’t notice, but he’s sure that Changkyun has. Either way, Hyungwon picks up an essay written on an attached unseen prose and begins to flip through it. 

 

“What’re the books for?” He nods towards the neat stack of purple paperbacks, all twenty or so with “Merchant of Venice” written across the spines in white text. 

 

“Ah, these are some optional extra stuff I’ve asked my classes to do? I told them that they could hand in their books for me to correct their annotations and clarify their misconceptions.” 

 

“Mind if I…” Hyungwon slinks his hand towards the first of the books in the pile. 

 

“Yeah, just give me that essay you’re holding. It’s the last one I have left.” 

 

With that, Hyungwon exchanges his loose-leaf script for a well-worn book, filled with annotations messily scribbled and crammed into the generous margins. For some reason, this seems to extend to the whole class. Whilst some were more empty than others, all of them had a significant amount of stuff written down. One student even had papers slotted into the book to accommodate their notes. 

 

And then he comes across one particular book, more empty than he’d think Hyunwoo would like. It had conversations between two students written on an empty page at the back, filled to the brim with them. In one entry from that fateful Friday, he reads:

**blackbear is so done with us today**

_ yeah, he does. we r too stupid and undeserving of such a good lit daddy. _

 

The phrase “good lit daddy” doesn’t faze Hyungwon, but the word “blackbear” strikes a chord, and Hyungwon looks up from the book at the man sitting across him, holding the book up. 

 

“Your students call you ‘blackbear’?”

 

Hyunwoo smiles sheepishly upon hearing the name, suddenly taking interest in fiddling with his fingers. “They’ve said I look a lot like one before and they use it as a nice nickname or something. I don’t know. Minhyuk thinks it’s cute. I don’t really care what they call me?”

 

“Well, they also called you their ‘lit daddy’ in this.” The book is handed over, and Hyunwoo’s eyes widen upon seeing the copious amounts of text written in the small space, darting from corner to corner of the page, scanning the notes line by line. Finally, he finds the line in question and reads it out loud, sighing. 

 

“They’re not wrong. I was pretty done with them that day…” Hyunwoo trails off, and begins to describe how his class had spontaneously forgotten the proper way to answer literature questions. Hyungwon finds his head rest on his hand, hears the other sounds in the bar fade into background noise. It’s part of listening, so he’s sure it’s normal, but he can’t seem to stop staring at Hyunwoo’s lips, Hyunwoo’s eyes, Hyunwoo’s shoulders...

 

“... and I love my kids, but sometimes they are a little testy… Hyungwon?” 

 

“Sorry,” Hyungwon runs a hand through his hair, “spacing out a bit. Today’s a long day.”

 

Hyunwoo agrees. 

 

“Well, it’s good that your kids love you, though. I remember doing so badly at subjects where I hated the teachers I had.” Hyungwon encourages Hyunwoo, who smiles appreciatively. Eyes crinkle, one more than the other. 

 

“I’ll remember that, then.” 

 

The night ends with yet another send-off by Hyunwoo, and yet another incidence of Hyungwon being just a little dazed. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> well, when I said updates from me would be sporadic now you know what I mean~ I just finished a bunch of block tests and I’m having a one week school break rn to rest, revise and recuperate! don’t expect anything tho. 
> 
> also, I only just realised how rarely showhyung is written. I hope I’m doing it justice ;-;

**Author's Note:**

> thank you for reading! feel free to yell at me on [ twitter ](https://twitter.com/sohnsonsun) or on [ cc ](https://curiouscat.me/sohnsunson) and my drafts are always availlable for viewing at tinyurl.com/sohnsonsundump
> 
> many of the weird situations being mentioned in this fic have actually happened to me irl lol I was so bad at literature that i took a poem at face value  
> and kh and mh are both based on this history teacher in my old school that was an actual angel, her husband is also a history teacher and it's so cute they actually go and spend money to buy stuff from ww2 when on vacation ok
> 
> ok here's [ springtime for hitler and germany ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1zY1orxW8Aw) it's SO FUNNY 
> 
> it's been a long time since i've published anything, but a few things have changed and it feels significant enough to say it here:
> 
> firstly, I've dropped nct and stopped stanning them. this piece of info is PROBABLY really weird if you're a mbb who came to read this from the mx tag but for mbbs who haven't read any of my other fics, I wrote for johnten and almost half(?) my fics are johnten, so if im being optimistic i hope!!! ive established myself as a johnten/nct writer and suddenly im droppin em  
> This is mainly for very personal reasons, one of them being that going through the cycle of optimism, hope, pessimism and eventual disappointment and anger in regards to SM's line distribution and how they promote members of NCT that aren't their usual favourites is... really really taxing on my mental health. this does not mean that I'll stop producing content for nct immediately, however. I do have a doyu fic in my drafts n stuff and it does have some stuff written for it, and I don't want it to go to waste. (me dropping nct is also mayhaps why my last johnten happened forever ago)
> 
> secondly, I'll be going into jc2 next year. idk whats the international equivalent but basically, one last year of intense schooling and a levels (national exam) before I go to university. if updates from me were sporadic before, they'll probably get even more sporadic. I do tweet out when I'm releasing things because I love attention tho.
> 
> lastly, I turn 18 in 18 days!! HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!


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